The present invention relates to a connector for releasably connecting two building elements wherein one of elements has an engageable edge and the other has, at the connection end, a cavity in which a first sleeve of the same cross-sectional shape as the cavity is insertable, such first sleeve having a longitudinal hole for receiving an elongate clamping member. The clamping member comprises, at its outer end, a hook for engagement with the engageable edge and, on its part received in the first hole, a bevelled surface to cooperate with a clamping screw which, when turned in a threaded hole in a second sleeve, is movable transversely of the clamping member to a position with its tip against the bevelled surface, under the action of a spring bias between the first sleeve and the clamping member.
This type of connector has been known and widely used for connecting building elements, such as tubular components, for instance tubular sections formed by extrusion of aluminum. Such connectors are, however, inconvenient in one or several respects because mounting them is complicated and because they consist of many parts and, inadvertently, they may come apart during handling.
CH-A-No. 525,346, SE-C-No. 329,904 and SE-C-No. 7903736-2 disclose different connectors of the type mentioned above which, however, all have the disadvantage that they cannot be mounted as a unit in the building elements. This makes mounting complicated and time-consuming.
Although SE-A-No. 8205298-6 discloses a connector which allows mounting as a unit, this connector is inconvenient to use since the clamping screw must be turned to fix the connector to the building element in which the connector is inserted, and since the clamping screw proper comes into engagement with the edge of an opening in the same building element so as to absorb the force clamping the building elements, when the connector is tightened.